Casing drying apparatus



May 6, 1941. e. G. FISHER ETAL.

CASING DRYING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 25, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l j a a 4 a M o o 0 who y yo o c 0 /:/u.

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CASING DRYING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 25 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 6, 1941 CASING DRYING APPARATUS George G. Fisher and Gustav W. Grubbe, Chicago, Ill., assignors to Independent Casing Company, a corporation of Illinois Application January 25, 1940, Serial No. 315,558

7 Claims.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for drying casings and particularly to an apparatus for drying sausage casings obtained from the small intestines of sheep and hog.

In accordance with the prior art, natural intestinal casings have been dried in a large drying room or chamber fitted with inflating means for inflating the individual casing lengths and for maintaining them inflated during the drying period. The use of such drying apparatusis objectionable because of the difliculty involved in securing the'casings to the inflating means and thus stringing them through the room. In the operation of one of such prior art apparatus, an operator is required to mount a platform with a suflicient supply of casings and fastening means to attach the casings to the inflating means in a row or string across the room. The inflating means are then placed in operation to start the drying of that row of casings. The operator is then required to descend from the platform, move the latter in suitable position and then repeat the procedure to string the second row of casings. This operation is repeated until the room has been strung substantially throughout with casings. 7

While in this apparatus the casings dry in the order of their stringing, it is nevertheless essential to await the drying of all of the casings in the room before removing any of the dried casings and replacing them with wet casings. Obviously, this results in an increased cost of operation and a slow-down in production as compared to an apparatus designed to permit the immediate replacement of a wet for a dry casing.

In accordance with the present invention we have devised a novel apparatus which enables an operator to readily string casings for drying throughout the drying chamber without the requirement for stringing them in any particu ar order and which at the same time enables the operator to immediately replace any one or more dry casings with wet casings without affecting to any substantial extent the rate of drying of the wet casings. The drying apparatus in accordance with our invention is simple in design and construction and permits of a facile and economical operation with increased production.

Our invention has many other advantages which will be apparent from the following detailed description.

In the drawings which illustrate, byway of example, one embodiment of the invention:

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view through a drying apparatus constructed in accordance with our invention, with parts in elevation;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof;

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional veiw thereof, with parts broken away, taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the top of the drying chamber with parts broken away to show a detail of design and operation; and

Fig. 5 is an enlargedfragmentary perspective view of a modification of an element of our apparatus.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral l0 designates a casing drying chamber within which the wet casings are strung and inflated to dry them. This chamber may be of any suitable height, say in the order of about 15 to 30 feet and even higher, to accommodate natural intestinal casings of substantially all lengths. The other dimensions of the chamber may be varied, as desired, to meet any desired need.

Chamber I0 is defined by side walls l2 and I3, front and rear walls l5 and I6 respectively, floor l8 and a ceiling or top, designated by the numeral I9. Front wall I5 is suitably in the form of a door, hinged to side wall 12, as at 29, to provide means for ingress to the chamber for cleaning, etc.

Top IS, in effect, is in the form of a plurality of small, independently operable doors 22 through which communication is permitted to any desired portion of the chamber for the purpose of stringing individual lengths of wet casings for drying them and for removing and replacing the casings, as desired in a manner to be hereinafter described. As shown, doors 22 are supported in a suitable framework and are hinged thereto as at 23. This framework is secured in any desired manner to the tops of the walls of the chamber and comprises substantially L-shaped members 2A which are spaced apart and extend between the front and rear walls l5 and I6 respectively, and spaced apart, inverted T-shaped cross members 25 which extend between side walls I? and I3. These criss-crossed members are interlocked, thereby rendering the framework rigid, and, as shown, provide a plurality of smaller square spaces, each of which is closed by a single hinged door 22.

Positioned and supported above the drying chamber is the casing inflating apparatus. This apparatus comprises a header 28 through which compressed air or other suitable inert gas, preferably moderately heated and at comparatively low pressure, flows from any suitable source of supply connected to the inlet 21. Header 28 is provided with suitable fittings 30 to which valves 3| may be secured to control the flow of air from the header. The fittings and valves correspond in number to the number of doors 22. Each valve has secured thereto a flexible conduit 33 through which air may flow to the nozzles or nipples 34 which extend from the free ends of the conduits.

Each nozzle 34 extends into the drying cham-, ber through an opening in each door. apparent that a single length of casingmay be attached to or removed from any particular nozzle by simply opening the door through which that nozzle extends, without opening up the whole chamber and without substantially afiecting the rate of drying of the casings suspended from other nozzles.

In the operation of our apparatus, a single the casing is now lowered into the chamber and the valve controlling the fiow of air to that nozzle is now cracked to allow sufiicient air to flow into the casing to inflate it. The flow of air into the casing is continuous throughout the drying process and is suflicient to replace the air" lost through the minute openings normally present in the casings but not to unduly inflate and burst the casing. The door is now closed and the operation is continued until Wet casings have been inflated on all of the nozzles.

The drying of the inflated casings is facilitated by the flow of moderately heated air or other insert gas through the chamber. Thus we provide an inlet 40, suitably at the bottom of the chamber, through which heated air flows from any suitable source of supply. An air outlet 4| is provided adjacent the top of the chamber.

We have found that if the temperature of the air or gas introduced into the casing and chamber is maintained between about, say, 110 F. to 150 F. the casings are dried in about 10 to 20 minutes. Usually in this time the operator has strung all of the casings. The operator then returns to the initial starting place, removes the dried casing, replaces it with a wet one and continues with the operations.

The wet casings are of a gelatinous nature and have a tendency to adhere to anything they come in contact with, particularly other casings. Hence, we provide suitable mean to limit any undue sway of the inflated casings and thereby prevent contact of one with another. These sway limiting means may suitably be in the form of corrosion resisting wires or rods 43 and 44 which together as at 46 to prevent relative movement thereof. The casings, of'cour se, extend through It is thus 7 5 the aligned spaces formed by the criss-crossed rods.

In Fig. 5 there is shown a modified form of limiting means. As there shown, a plurality of spaced, open wire-meshed sheets 48 of suitable corrosion resisting metal, are interlocked in criss-cross fashion to form a rigid, self-sustaining structure having individual cells through which the inflated casings are adapted to extend. The interlocked sheets may be dimensioned to fit the dimensions of the chamber and are positioned therein with a cell directly underlying an opening in the top. We prefer that this structure be supported on floor l8 and be of such height that the top thereof is in the order of about -6 to 18 inches below the nozzles.

Casings dried with apparatus in accordance with our invention may be stored for indefinite periods of time without deterioration and may be transported with considerably more ease and at less expense than is the case with casings preserved in salt. In addition, these casings may be presented to the manufacturer of sausages in an attractive package and in a form which lends itself for ease of handling and application in the manufacture of sausages.

Our invention is not to be construed as limited to the specific embodiment described above since it may be modified in many obvious ways without departing from the scope of our invention as set forth in the appended claims. Thus, for example, a heating unit such as a heated coil may be used to heat the air within the chamber. From the standpoint of ease of operation, a platform may be built around the drying chamber adjacent the top thereof to enable the operator to readily string casings onto the nozzles and to replace the dry casings with wet casings. Other obvious changes will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:

1. In apparatus for drying casings, an elongated casing drying chamber provided at its top with a plurality of doors, means associated with each door for maintaining in inflated condition a length of casing within said chamber, said means including an air discharge nozzle which extends through said doors and into the chamber, a clamp for securing the casing to the nozzle and means for drying the inflated casings.

2. In apparatus for drying casings, an elongated casing drying chamber provided at its top with a plurality of doors, means associated with each door for maintaining in inflated condition a length of casing within said chamber, said ,means including an air discharge nozzle which extends through said doors and into the chamber, a clamp for securing the casing to the nozzle and means for passing a drying stream of air through said chamber.

3. In apparatus for drying casings, an elongated casing drying chamber provided at its top with a plurality of doors, means associated with each door for maintaining in inflated condition a length of casing within said chamber, said means including an air discharge nozzle which extends through said doors and into the chamber, a clamp for securing the casing to the nozzle, means within said chamber to prevent the inflated casings from contacting, one with another, and means for passing a drying stream of air through said chamber.

4. In apparatus for drying casings, an elongated casing drying chamber provided at itstop with a plurality. of independently operable doors, means associated with each door for maintaining in inflated condition a length of easing within said chamber, said means including an air discharge nozzle which extends through said doors and into the chamber, a clamp for securing the casing to the nozzle, an air manifold and flexible conduits establishing communication between said nozzles and said manifold, and means for passing a drying stream of air through said chamber.

5. In apparatus for drying casings, an elongated casing drying chamber provided at its top with a plurality of doors, means for maintaining in inflated condition individual length of casings Within said chamber, said means including an air manifold, a plurality of flexible air conduits connected to said manifold, the number of said conduits being the same as the number of said doors, and an air discharge nozzle secured to each of said conduits, each of said nozzles extends through a single door and into the chamber, a clamp for securing the casing to the nozzle and means for passing a drying stream of air through said chamber.

6. In apparatus for drying casings, an elongated casing drying chamber provided at its top with a plurality of doors, means for maintaining in inflated condition individual lengths of casings within said chamber, said means including an air manifold, a plurality of flexible air conduits connected to said manifold, the number of said conduits being the same as the number of said doors, an air discharge nozzle secured to each of said conduits, each of said nozzles extends through a single door and into the chamber, a clamp for securing the casing to the nozzle and a valve associated with each conduit to control the flow of air from the manifold to the conduit, and means for passing a drying stream of air through said chamber.

7. In apparatus for drying casings, an elongated casing drying chamber provided at its top with a plurality of doors, means for maintaining in inflated condition individual lengths of casings within said chamber, said means including an air manifold, a plurality of flexible air conduits connectedto said manifold, the number of said conduits being the same as the number of said doors, an air discharge nozzle secured to each of said conduits, each of said nozzles extends through a single door and into the chamber, a clamp for securing the casing to the nozzle, and a valve associated with heat conduit to control the flow of air from the manifold to the conduit, means within said chamber to prevent the inflated casings from contacting, one with another, and means for passing a drying stream of air through said chamber.

GEORGE G. FISHER. GUSTAV W. GRUBBE. 

